Andre Andare
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Follow my journey around Europe to find the most beautiful churches!
🏝️ My kind of island retreat
Rheinau is a beautiful place, perfect for a day trip. You can paddleboard around the river, or visit the nearby Rheinfall waterfalls. Maybe get something nicer to eat than my Michelin-star pocket menu.
The church is strictly no photography so its online presence is largely non-existent. Luckily, you found the best page on Instagram so you get to see it 😉
I will show the skeleton in the coming weeks as part of my new series: Sleeping Beauties 👀
Wedding crasher 😳
The perks of dressing in simple black clothing is most people assume I’m a photographer, priest, or maintenance person. Alas, I am only the first.
I often walk into unexpected ceremonies, depending on my schedule I will either move on (returning at another date) or suspiciously hide in the corner until everyone leaves. Small churches often don’t publicise their calendars, so it’s impossible to plan timings.
Sunday Funday?
When travelling to visit churches, Sunday is always a risky day. Many churches are still active parishes, so I might visit during Mass when photography isn’t allowed.
To mitigate this risk, I usually plan my leisure activities on Sunday to use the time productively. Today I visited Pfingstegg (near Grindelwald) and Rosenlaui Valley, I went early so it was basically empty - yay.
The most beautiful church in Switzerland!
Forget about Asamkirche in Munich, this is Asamkirche of Einsiedeln 🇨🇭 The oldest and most popular pilgrim site in the country since the 10th century.
Decorated by the Asam brothers in 1735, this is the furthest church (by transport routes) from their home in Munich.
28/09/2026
The Golden Window of Einsiedeln!
Showing its Bernini-Baroque influence from the Asam brothers, the Western entrance glows like an eternal sunset.
The colourful arches flow out from the Marian shrine, which draws over 800,000 pilgrims every year!
The pilgrimage to Einsiedeln is unusually not linked to a Marian apparition, but a monastic tradition to visit this church. The Chapel of Grace is believed to have been consecrated by Jesus himself, as one of the earliest churches in Switzerland - this drew monastic pilgrims. Later in the Middle Ages, it became a Marian pilgrimage.
Outside the Abbey is a golden statue of Mary, with fountains of water flowing from it. The tradition is that to complete the pilgrimage, you must sip from all the water spouts around this statue, the water is from natural sources in the nearby mountains.
The Black Madonna!
This Abbey is a popular African pilgrimage sight, with a pan-African pilgrimage at the end of August every year. It’s mostly Eritrean pilgrims, as this church famously volunteered to house refugees from their during mass fleeing in 2015.
They host a Mass in Ge’Ez language, although the country is mostly Orthodox there is an official Eritrean Catholic Church too which maintains local traditions.
The story behind the Black Madonna is unclear, it may have originally been white & darkened by candle soot. But history affirms the locals wanted it to stay black throughout restoration work. It’s seen as an affirmation of the pan-raciality of Mary & the Church.
The colourful Pulpit glowing in the sunlight! ☀️
This was painted by the Asam brothers, the colour palette is beautiful and feels like a Bavarian Baroque work.
Dome in a Star, can you see it?
The glowing sanctuary and high altar. This church is quite big, you might struggle to see what’s happening at the altar from the nave, but you can walk up close as a visitor to see it!
Today was a fun day, visiting the oldest & most beautiful church in the whole of Switzerland!
Most Baroque churches in Switzerland are not this extravagant, but this interior was assisted by none other than…the ASAM BROTHERS! Yes, they even worked in Switzerland!!
I made my way through Lucerne, towards crossing the Zurichsee, towards the German side of Switzerland near Lake Constance. Some fun nature videos coming up tomorrow!
Basel->Porrentruy->Fribourg->Lucerne!
Porrentruy is a small town near the French border, which used to have an active convent-hospital. The nuns left many decades ago, so the relics were transferred from the church to what is now a museum.
It seems slightly strange seeing relics in a museum setting, but perhaps it’s the only way to preserve them safely.
I then drove towards Fribourg, but I will post the skeleton here another time because it was simply too beautiful to hide in this vlog! I ended the day in Lucerne, ready for my next busy day of churches 😜
26/09/2026
Arlesheimer Dom🇨🇭
Not far from Basel airport is this beautiful Cathedral of Arlesheimer. It had a Rococo redesign in 1761 by father and son architects, Johann & Franz Bagnato. Trained in the Baroque style of Upper Swabia, in Ravensburg.
It houses one of the famous Silbermann Organs! 🎶
I’m travelling around the whole of Switzerland in a week, exploring churches, relics, cows & more!
The main purpose of this trip is to visit some rare catacomb Saint relics, many of which are unseen online. I am sharing my day to day activities on this journey, so you can see what it’s like to do what I do.
Day 1 started with a rookie mistake and left ALL my camera batteries at home! 🤦🏻♂️ But I got things back on track. I hope you enjoy this mini-series, it ends with a surprise new content series for October 😉
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